It’s another behind-the-scenes podcast!
This time producer Joe Ligo is talking to people who provided some of those great AMC commercials and factory films used in our documentary: Automotive film collector Todd Ruel and Chris Allen and Jon Martens from the Kenosha History Center.
The TTAC Creators Series tells stories and amplifies creators from all corners of the car world, including culture, dealerships, collections, modified builds and more.
A transcript, cleaned up via AI and edited by a human staffer, is below.
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Transcript:
Joe: What are some of your favorite commercials?
Todd Rule: The AMC commercials created by Wells, Rich, and Green are some of the best. They were among the first car companies to incorporate humor into the messages they were trying to communicate.
Herb Edelman was the bald guy who drove the Javelin in one of those spots where everyone kept trying to drag race him. You’d also see a lot of actors who later became well known. Dana Elcar, for example, appeared in the introductory Gremlin commercial. They used a lot of up-and-coming talent from Hollywood and New York at the time.
Narrator:
The Last Independent Automaker Podcast was sponsored in part by Visit Detroit, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Motor City’s National Heritage Area, and by more than 375 individuals and organizations who donated to the project.
Joe: Hello everybody, and thank you for joining us again on The Last Independent Automaker Podcast.
Today’s episode is a fun one because we’re talking about how we obtained some of the great vintage footage featured in our documentary. In addition to the amazing stories from the people we interviewed, viewers often comment on how much they enjoy the old car ads, TV commercials, and factory footage.
A lot of that material came from our first guest, my friend Todd Rule, who specializes in tracking down and preserving historical automotive films. Todd, thanks for joining us.
Todd Rule: Joe, it’s a pleasure to be on. Thanks for inviting me.
Joe: Let’s jump right into it. Anyone watching our documentary will probably recognize footage from your collection. The first five episodes include things like Nash Rambler commercials, Gremlin ads, Pacer and Javelin commercials, and lots of factory footage showing Hornets and Gremlins being built.
How did you amass this collection?
Todd Rule: It started with my love of classic cars. My background is in television production, so there’s an intersection between pop culture, history, and automobiles. I became interested in the media car companies produced to promote their vehicles.
My interest in American Motors began with the Nash Metropolitan. I actually have a 1961 Metropolitan sitting in storage. At some point I wondered what kinds of media were created to promote those cars.
I came across some vintage Metropolitan footage from 1953 or 1954 and became fascinated with it. Eventually I tracked down John Conde, who had been the assistant to the director of public relations for Nash and American Motors, and later the director of public relations for Jeep before retiring in 1976.
He had a large collection of literature and films that he sold at events like Hershey. When I visited him, I bought his entire film collection. It wasn’t huge, but it contained some important pieces. From there I started watching eBay in the late ’90s. Whenever something appeared, I’d bid on it.
Initially I focused on orphan brands like Nash, Studebaker, and Kaiser-Frazer. I even have what might be the world’s largest Rampage film collection—five films. Over time the collection grew and eventually expanded to include films from other manufacturers as well.
Joe: When you say “film,” what exactly are we talking about? These aren’t videotapes.
Todd Rule: Right. These are actual film reels—canisters of celluloid. You can hold them up to the light and see the images.
I have an example here: a Wells, Rich, and Green commercial from around 1971. Back then, commercials were distributed to TV stations on 16mm film. Stations would project the film and aim a television camera at the projector. That’s how the commercial went to air before videotape became common.
Ad agencies like Wells, Rich, and Green would produce a commercial, transfer it to film, make hundreds of copies, and mail them to TV stations.
Joe: So the films you find on eBay today might actually be copies that were sent to local TV stations decades ago?
Todd Rule: Exactly—and how they survived is something of a mystery.
Sometimes I’ll find unusual items. A few years ago I bought a film that had been a retirement gift to a GM executive. It might have been shown once at his retirement dinner and then stored away. Eventually the owner passed away, the family didn’t know what to do with it, and it ended up at auction.
That happens a lot. Things pass through estates, go to auctioneers, and eventually show up on eBay. If I’m the highest bidder, they end up with me.
Back in the day another source was dumpster diving—especially after AMC was acquired by Chrysler. A lot of documents and probably films were thrown away.
Joe: Once you acquire these films, you still have to digitize them so people can watch them. What does that process look like?
Todd Rule: The big challenge is that these films were never meant to last. They were printed cheaply because they were only expected to be used for six or twelve months before being discarded.
Over time the dyes in the film fade. Film uses three dyes—magenta, cyan, and yellow. The cyan and yellow tend to fade first, leaving the image very red. When you hold the film up to the light, it often looks extremely warm or reddish.
When I digitize a film, I have to perform color correction—boosting cyan and yellow while reducing red—to restore a more natural look. It’s similar to restoring a faded photograph.
We also use software for restoration. There’s something called “dust busting,” which removes speckles and scratches caused by years of projection. Many of the prints are rough, so we try to clean them up enough that viewers can enjoy them while still retaining that vintage film look.
Joe: We ran into that during our documentary when we used the Javelin dance-party clip. You had digitized it once at a lower resolution and then redigitized it in 4K for us. The newer one was sharper, but the colors were more faded, so we ended up using the earlier version.
Todd Rule: That happens a lot. In that case, I had the only complete print of the 1969 AMC product dealer introduction film. I digitized it years ago in standard definition.
Unfortunately, I stored the original print improperly and the colors continued to fade. The newer 4K scan had less original color information. Hopefully, as technology improves, we’ll eventually be able to use the earlier transfer as a reference and restore a better version.
Joe: Technology moves quickly. When we started the documentary we thought we were fancy filming everything in 4K, and now smartphones can do that.
Before we move on, what are some of your favorite films you’ve discovered—not necessarily the rarest, but the most enjoyable to watch?
Todd Rule: I have to give a shout-out to Tom Thomas, who came from Ford and produced promotional films for American Motors. My favorite is the 1969 dealer introduction film. It’s energetic and very much a product of its time, but it still feels fresh.
Instead of focusing on features like “here’s a knob that does this,” it focused on lifestyle and benefits. That was something he was really good at.
Beyond that, I enjoy muscle-car era films from the late ’60s and early ’70s. They were clearly aimed at younger buyers and they’re a lot of fun.
I also love industrial films, especially anything from Nash. One of my favorites is a 1964 Studebaker film called Different by Design. It’s a great snapshot of mid-1960s life and was essentially Studebaker’s last major promotional effort before U.S. production ended in 1963.
Joe: There’s also another category of film that people might not know about: news films.
Todd Rule: Right. Companies would produce short newsreel-style films—usually about 60 seconds long—and send them to local TV stations. Stations could use them as filler for their newscasts.
Often they were silent. The station would receive a script or cue sheet that the announcer would read while the footage played.
These films ran from the late ’60s through the late ’70s and are fascinating historical artifacts. Even though they’re not traditional commercials, they’re just as valuable to me.
Joe: That practice still exists today, just digitally. Companies send B-roll packages to news stations so the station gets a quick story and the company gets free publicity.
Let’s talk more about commercials, since that’s what most people remember. What are some of your favorites?
Todd Rule: The Wells, Rich, and Green commercials for AMC stand out because they used humor in a way that was unusual for car advertising at the time.
They weren’t the first to do it, though. Doyle Dane Bernbach’s Volkswagen ads were famous for their “anti-advertising” style, even poking fun at the Beetle.
I also enjoy older commercials from the 1950s with that classic announcer voice. And it’s fun to spot early appearances by actors who later became famous. For example, Richard Dreyfuss and Robert De Niro both appeared in AMC commercials early in their careers.
Herb Edelman, the actor in the Javelin commercial, later appeared on The Golden Girls. And Dana Elcar appeared in the Gremlin’s introductory ad.
Joe: This isn’t just a hobby for you. You also license this footage professionally.
Todd Rule: That’s right. Some of my material is licensed through Getty Images. Each month I receive a royalty statement showing who has used it.
Over the years, many major media companies—CNN, NBC, Viacom, and others—have licensed clips. It’s always fun to see where they show up. If American Pickers licenses a Nash clip, I usually assume they’ve found a Nash in a barn somewhere.
Joe: It’s great that you’re helping preserve a small piece of American history.
Todd Rule: I think of myself as more of a steward. I’m just holding onto these films for the next person who comes along. Hopefully I keep them in good enough condition that they remain useful and worth preserving.
Joe: Todd, I can’t thank you enough for everything you contributed to the documentary—both the footage you digitized specifically for us and the material from your archive. It really brought the story of American Motors to life.
Joe: Our next guests are two people who were also essential to the project. As many AMC fans know, while the company’s headquarters were in Detroit, its largest manufacturing facilities were in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
We were fortunate to work closely with the Kenosha History Center. Today I’m joined by John and Chris, who helped us bring the documentary across the finish line. Thanks for joining me.
Chris: We’re glad to be here.
John: Thanks for having us, Joe.
(The remainder of the discussion continues with John and Chris explaining the Kenosha History Center, its archives, and its collection of photographs, factory footage, and historical materials related to American Motors and Kenosha’s manufacturing history.)
